If you wish to apologise or register a Leave of Absence Request, please use the links below. Any problems please use contact form and emails will be forwarded. Remember absences need to be submitted before 6 pm on Thursday to be credited. LOAs require board approval

Big THANK YOU to Santa Anna who, in turn, thanked her thanker, for a great mid-winter Christmas bash. If it gets any bigger, Anna will have to move house (good job she's in the right profession)

APPEAL for another Bulletin editor was met with a stunned silence but thanks are now due to Bill Chapman who volunteered after giving it due consideration

THE ELMS EXHIBITION is on next weekend

Kathy introduced her TREASURED ART team

BARBARA circulated a collection list for Pink Ribbon Day on 12 October – seemed to be filling up nicely already

SUNSHINE AWARD was presented to Shaun Piper

OUR SPEAKER today was Sam MacNeill, the Branch Manager for Duncan and Ebbett,who are proud to be the main sponsors for Treasured Art. There are 2 dealerships, one here in Tauranga and the other in Hamilton and D & E specialise in Volvo, Jaguar and Land Rover – all pretty high-end stuff. They opened in 2013 and since then have been the recipients of several Jag and LR awards. Sam sees their association with Treasured Art as a great way of supporting good causes as well as raising the company profile.

Snippets about the Volvo brand:

Big on safety but latterly going more for style and quality (I had 3 760s during the 80s and loved 'em all – Ed)

Now owned by a Chinese outfit with plants in Sweden, Belgium, USA and China

Sales in China are 0.5% of that country's total, but that equates to 114,000 vehicles, just a tad more than the 540 sold in NZ last year. Way to go

Raffle won by Sally

SERGEANT KEN fined himself for being late in starting and it all went downhill from there. He reeled off some impressive statistics about the International Convention which he had attended in Toronto (his home town, in case you didn't know). Registration points popped up at the airport and train stations. Some 25000 registered for the event, plus another 7000 Canadians. Tauranga next year? Then it was a case of getting everyone to stand up and then sit down if they had attended various Rotary events. There may have been a winner – who knows?

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UNCLE WAYNE NEEDS YOU!

4 or 5 volunteers are required to do the sound and projector setup each Club morning by rotation.
Full training will be given and a easy to follow setup sheet will be with the equipment. Great way for some of our newer members to get involved a bit more! Contact Wayne at wayneshad@gmail.com

We will add this duty to the 3 week roster

STAY UP TO DATE ON YOUR MOBILE WITH THE CLUBRUNNER MOBILE APP!

The ClubRunner Mobile App is your key to connect to our club and district on the go! Completely, free to download and use, this app will let you access the key info you need while you're on the go. Password protected just like our website, the ClubRunner Mobile app allows you to to view the member directory, contact your fellow members and executives, read the latest articles posted to our website, learn more about upcoming events and speakers, view your meeting details and track your attendance statistics, right from your smartphone or tablet!

To download the app from the Apple App Store or from Google Play, simply type in 'ClubRunner' in the search bar. The mobile app is compatible with all versions of the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch sets that have iOS 8.0 or later and with versions of Anrdoids that are 4.0.3 or better.

Now the bit you've all been waiting for! The first ever 'Prez Sez' contribution.

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PREZ SEZ

Incredible as it may seem we are already one month into this Rotary year – but what a month it has been!

Thanks to Warren Scobie and Monique Edlinger our Changeover evening was a night to remember with great food and even better company as we danced the night away. Thanks in particular to MC Ron Devlin, who as we have come to expect had us rolling in the aisles with his zany and earthy sense of humour.

Highlight of the night was the well-deserved and not before time acknowledgement of Past President Ron Fyfe with not one but two PHFs.

Well done Ron!

The inaugural Sunshine Awards for those members who go that extra mile for the Club or who make a significant difference in the lives of others were presented to Wayne Shadbolt and David Robinson for their selfless efforts keeping the club on track through some challenging times and for standing up when the Club needed them most. Further Sunshine awards were made to Larissa Allen, Andy Cameron, Les Geraghty and Shaun Piper for their work as Project K mentors, helping young people fulfil their potential.

More recently Anna Kendall hosted a Mid-Winter Christmas dinner with her house bulging at the seams. Great food, lots of laughs and very willing if rather out of tune singing made this a memorable evening. Thank you Anna.

We have paid two club visits to Tauranga and Te Papa clubs, flying the flag for our club and Anna has lined up Mt Maunganui, Maketu and Otumoetai for future visits. Please come and join us. It has been great fun meeting fellow Rotarians and quite educative on how each club is so different from each other.

We have had great speakers with Karl Chitham from the Art Gallery speaking to us on The Rooms event at The Elms, of which we are a sponsor.

A highlight for me was the eloquent presentation from Kathy Webb telling us of her life experiences. It reinforces just what an interesting bunch we are.

We ended the month with Sam McNeil from Duncan Ebbett Volvo helping us officially launch Treasured Art 2018 of which they are principal sponsors.

We also launched Anna’s Ambulance Appeal with outstanding suggestions from members. This is going to be at least a three year fundraiser and will need the involvement of other Tauranga clubs. The simple message that if every resident of Tauranga donated a gold coin we could put an ambulance on the road will give this great appeal in the community.

Simon Beaton, John Carlson and Ken White as sergeants extracted large sums of money from us with gentle and not so gentle humour.

Warwick de Vere is heading up a small committee with Bill Holland and James Ross to review our governance documentation and create a club appropriate set of Bylaws. If any other member would like to be part of this vital task please contact Warwick.

Our Past Presidents (Kaitiaki) have been a great source of advice and support for me and are considering recipients for the inaugural Kaitiaki Award. Later in the year we will be commencing having each Past President speak to us on their year in the hot seat and the amazing projects they ran.

Brett Hobson and Rhonda Wisbey have kindly agreed to be the club’s Foundation champions and will keep the club updated on Foundation news throughout the year.

Thank you guys!

Directors Pauline Cowens, Dave Robinson, Barbara Whitton and Julie Hignett will be presenting their objectives at our club assembly on 17 August and have some exciting projects lined up for us.

The International Committee are working on a house project in Tonga in conjunction with Papanui club, which will be the subject of a District Grant and to fund this Julie is promoting the sale of black toilet paper as a novelty item. Please support Julie by buying the odd roll or two.

The Board has had its first meeting and it has become apparent that we really need to knuckle down to get some funds in to support the many brilliant applications we have received. Shortly Warren will be emailing each of you seeking wacky and not so wacky ideas for fund raising opportunities. He would like at least one suggestion from each member. Once compiled the list will be shared with you through your committee directors.

Trust representative Neville Whitworth and Treasurer Ray Scott will be presenting our finances at the club assembly so please come along to have your say.

Coming up we have some fantastic events lined up.

The Official District Governor’s visit is on 31 August and as his wife Elizabeth will be accompanying him partners are very welcome to attend this meeting when a special club announcement will be made.

Sunday 7 October at 4-00pm will be time to get your glad rags on and witness history being made for the world premiere of Barry Vercoe’s woodwind composition. Warren and his team will be putting together a function after the concert to make this a very special occasion. It would be great to see the majority of the club there to support Barry on this very special personal achievement.

The Treasured Art Black Tie auction takes place at a secret venue on Saturday 10 November. This will be another highlight as we showcase our club, whilst raising funds for Kiwi Can. A hard core of a dozen members under the leadership of Kathy Webb have been working on this for several months and as we get closer to the day we will be seeking help from other club members. In the meantime we urgently seek artwork and names of art aficionados. Please give this some thought and get back to Kathy ASAP.

Early in the New Year we will have Bob Sutton’s world famous BBQ and of course the fabulous K Valley Cycle Challenge on March 3.

Heaps to look forward to.

This month we inducted Jason Eves, a relative newcomer to Tauranga who has joined the club to enable he and his wife Abigail give back to the community. Welcome Jason.

Sadly but not unexpectedly one of our club stalwarts, Mike Batchelor decided that for health and family reasons he would not be renewing his membership. Mike has been a wonderful member of the club for over 20 years and has made a significant contribution towards making this club so special. Mike is shortly to undergo a new round of surgery and I know would welcome visitors. Please make a point of keeping in touch with Mike.

I continue to be blown away by the unreserved support I have received and the many things in which we are involved.

As a club we truly do live up to the Rotary motto of “Be the inspiration”

Pat

Parting Thought

Brett Hewlett came up with a gem from the late Robin Williams:

'Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always.'